To mount or not to mount & regulator

the edit button is broken - should be '85L fridge'

For a regulator a Morningstar Sunsaver Duo 25 and use 1 x 100Ah battery for the fridge and the other for the van supply. Set the solar regulator to charge 90/10 so the fridge battery receives all the charge first and when fully charged charges the house battery.

Micheal is saying his van fridge will run on gas so there will not be a heavy power consumption Faulic. Also micheal, your hot water should run on gas as well as I don't know of a hot water heater that is powered from 12v. Cheers,Bob

Toyocrusa read the original post "the longer stays I will take a 85l Evakool".

All the late model RV hot water systems fitted to RV's require 12V to operate the gas. There are hot water systems powered from 12V.

Thanks Faulic_McVitte
Next time you shouldn't hold back lol
Tell it how it is I like that
I purchased two panels years ago on the basis of the panels rugged knockabout features more than its solar capacity and thought now rather than moving panels around through the day I would mount all 4 on the pop top on two aluminium tracks parrallel so that installing/security would be quite easy and that on my little solar knowledge thought that 4 panels would be almost overkill :-(
Now it looks like I jumped the gun on panel selection oh well _hit happens


Cheers Michael

michael H van with TV, lights, laptop, charging mobil phones, water pump would have 240W of panel capacity and often 360W. 85L evaKool that is a fridge freezer would require minimum 250W of panel capacity. In winter in cold weather your Unisolar wont output 200W of power. Amorphous panels are a failure reason they never became popular. Take up to much roof area, cost to much to mount, and only suitable location for optimal performance is northern Australia. Reason amorphous panels never became popular and reason you can no longer buy 64W panels. Amorphous have short life span compared to crystalline and reason they have limited warranty period and no warranty if mounted flat.

Do the evacool require a lot more power than the waeco?
I run an 80 ltr waeco at -10 on 2 x 120ahr batteries with 120w solar and it does it with ease. ie not charging all the time as it keeps the batteries full and runs the fridge. I also run lights etc in the camper.
Just courious thats all.

Cheers
Simon.

skmaint (WA) you have such a miracle fridge you should take it to Waeco so they can investigate it miraculous magical properties. Considering Waeco's power consumption figures would require 360W of solar to maintain a CF80 at -10C you sure read some miracle furpheys here. Unbelievable the miraculous fairy stories people tell. A 40L used as fridge for all year round use needs a 120W panel as a minimum and here you try and tell us a story you can power an 80L Waeco on -10C is cow poop.

Simon, Our 80 ltr evacool was very efficient. We ran it as 40ltr fridge 40ltr freezer with an 80w BP solar panel. We spent 3 years on the road and only had occassional problem where we were out most of the day and it was raining for days on end with cloud cover.

Josh

Josh more amazingly false miracles. How do you explain that it is possible to power an 80L evaKool from an 80W solar panel. That is complete and utter cow poop. evaKool would tell you that is cow poop. An 80L been used as a fridge freezer would use a minimum 40+Ah. In winter in southern Australia in winter you will get approximately 16aH and in summer a max of 33Ah and your 80L evaKool in summer would get up to 60Ah. Thankfully I can do the sums and know the truth.

Faulic_McVitte.. you are obviously a so called expert on this matter but I was simply asking a question and yes what I quoted was true and no I do not tell stories..As I sad I run 2 x 120ahr batteries with 120w solar and the waeco runs at -10. I would gladly show you the proof is in the pudding any time.
You still did not answer my question...But as usual on this site there is another one that wants to shoot people down.

Cheers
Simon.

Hi Josh,

Yes I agree with what you are saying I am not sure where Faulic_McVitte is getting his info from.
We have no trouble with our set up.

Cheers
Simon.

Well bugger me Faulic_McVitte, after travelling around oz for three years with the 80w solar panel and fridge working just fine, turns out I was wrong all those years....hang on, just checked the the invoice from the manufacture that came with the trailer....yep it was an 80w BP solar panel, an 80 ltr evacool fridge AND yes we ran it as a fridge/freezer.
Apology will be accepted when given.

Josh

PS..We had trouble coming out of Wilpena pound and thought it was the fridge. We rang Evacool and explained the set up we had. Fridge, batteries, solar panel. They talked us through some tests which proved it to be a faulty battery not the fridge. At no point did they ever mention the 80 w panel was to small for the fridge?????

Faulic_McVitte, What amp/hr for the fridge are you using as your base????

Josh

Josh
Our 80 ltr evacool was very efficient. We ran it as 40ltr fridge 40ltr freezer with an 80w BP solar panel.

The ridiculous claims you see made here are laughable and are completely false. Look at figures for evaKool RF47 and yet you Josh are claiming the ridiculous 80L evakool on an 80W solar panel ROFLOL What you are claiming is the most ridiculous cow poop around.

skmaint (WA)
I run an 80 ltr waeco at -10C on 2 x 120ahr batteries with 120w solar and it does it with ease
Waeco in their Power Consumption-Refrigerators listing, list the CF80 as a frezer at 30C will use 84Ah a day, yet you claim you can power it from a solar panel that produces in mid summer under ideal conditions 50Ah. You can cow poop some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time.

The claims the 2 of you are making is the most ridiculous bizarre impossibilities. Read the magazines fridge reports and the Ah usage in their reports and you will see how ridiculous the statements you are making. If what you claim was truth and fact it would make the front pages of news worldwide with an incredible break through in refrigeration efficiency. Now back to the real world and leave the cow poop claims. Unfortunately some people read the cow poop some post and believe it and end up in trouble. There is lies, damn lies and then peoples bizarre fridge power dreams.

Hi All

While I do not always agree with Faulic ,I do agree with him on this:

"Faulic_McVitte posted:
Josh more amazingly false miracles. How do you explain that it is possible to power an 80L evaKool from an 80W solar panel. That is complete and utter cow poop. evaKool would tell you that is cow poop. An 80L been used as a fridge freezer would use a minimum 40+Ah. In winter in southern Australia in winter you will get approximately 16aH and in summer a max of 33Ah and your 80L evaKool in summer would get up to 60Ah. Thankfully I can do the sums and know the truth.[end quote]

Those are pretty standard figures for the most compressor fridges

I have seen some absolutely ridiculously low consumption figures posted on forums from time to time
One stated 7 amp hrs per24 day !Achievable , yes possibly, if camped with ambient temps below 10c

Miracles do not happen with fridges.

As usual many posters do not state /clarify their daily travelling times , length of time with no supplementary charging [fixed camping] ,other power used in any 24hrs, etc

Which makes their posts meaningless


Peter

Hi All

Ditto to this also:

Faulic_McVitte posted:
Josh
Our 80 ltr evacool was very efficient. We ran it as 40ltr fridge 40ltr freezer with an 80w BP solar panel.

The ridiculous claims you see made here are laughable and are completely false. Look at figures for evaKool RF47 and yet you Josh are claiming the ridiculous 80L evakool on an 80W solar panel ROFLOL What you are claiming is the most ridiculous cow poop around.

skmaint (WA)
I run an 80 ltr waeco at -10C on 2 x 120ahr batteries with 120w solar and it does it with ease
Waeco in their Power Consumption-Refrigerators listing, list the CF80 as a frezer at 30C will use 84Ah a day, yet you claim you can power it from a solar panel that produces in mid summer under ideal conditions 50Ah. You can cow poop some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time.

The claims the 2 of you are making is the most ridiculous bizarre impossibilities. Read the magazines fridge reports and the Ah usage in their reports and you will see how ridiculous the statements you are making. If what you claim was truth and fact it would make the front pages of news worldwide with an incredible break through in refrigeration efficiency. Now back to the real world and leave the cow poop claims. Unfortunately some people read the cow poop some post and believe it and end up in trouble. There is lies, damn lies and then peoples bizarre fridge power dreams.[END quote]



You cannot perform miracles, even though you may think you are!

PLEASE SUPPLY FULL DETAILS OF HOW YOU OBTAIN SUCH RESULTS,
THAT INFO WOULD BE EXTREMELY VALUABLE TO ALL.

Details such as ;
daily solar amphrs input
battery state of charge each morning
Battery capacity
Supplementary charging if any [from alternator, genny , or mains power]
average ambient temp each day, by average, I mean a true average taken over hourly temp readings.
Actual fridge temp, used as fridge or freezer or combined
Fridge loading, etc

Peter

I'm running an 80 litre Engel combo (35L freezer at -9C and 40 litre fridge on the spill-over sitting at about 0C-4C range) on 2 x 140 AH batteries. I have found that using a bi-fold 100W solar panel in areas of Peak Sunlight like the top end of WA, I can maintain the fridge and rebuild the state of the batteries to about 99% on a sunny day in winter(average daytime temp 27-30C). This of course requires management of the system and fridge and judicious placement of the solar panels to maximize their operation but during stationary periods of a week, the solar input through an MPPT controller (using the Redarc BMS system) was sufficient to support power needs (fridge and the odd LED light)and maintain battery charge. This was slightly different down south but still credible with a diminishment in the battery state of 2-3% over a given day. It was quite cloudy during this week period though.


I don't need to read a magazine to tell me what is occurring in real time with my own fridge and power set-up. I can physically read it in the SOC records maintained over the period by the Redarc BMS. In my case 100W of solar input in WA supported the above. Justification in my mind of time on research and money well spent. In fact the group I was travelling with for 3 months all watched this over the period and several have moved over to the Redarc as well.

I always find that the best knowledge comes from experience. You know the sort of outcomes based and supported by evidence gained from being out there and doing it. Gee whiz, I wish I had a dollar for every time something written in a book or article involved a slightly different outcome in real life. The world is full of so called "experts" who just love spewing their own points of view in a manner that's more caustic than constructive. Not really needed or warranted particularly in this space.

I love my magic fridge. It keeps my food frozen and the beer cold. Everyone should have one ;-)

Mick

Sorry Pete, you slipped these two in while I was typing a reply to Caustic McVitte. As best I can at this late juncture, here’s some extra info.

Cheers Mick

Location – Little Sandy Desert WA July 2010
Battery Capacity – 280 A/H AGM (2x140 Power Sonic AGM)
Battery state at daybreak (average) 92-93%
Battery state at sunset – 99%
Supplementary input – (None Solar only- 2 50W BP solar from Derek Bester ABR)
Average ambient temperature – 27C
Fridge Temp and freezer mentioned above
Fridge loading adjusted down or up during day dependant on conditions – Fridge is single control with spill-over effect for fridge)
Unfortunately, SOC, Temp and draw records are only 28 days. No good there.


Michael H, apologies that your post has been hijacked.

Hi Mick

The Redarc BMS will give you some encreasd solar input per day over a standard reg .
It also records just what your solar input [Amphrs]was
Can you inform us of what that was ??
By my calculations @ the best ,it would be 7.2 amps by hrs of effective sunlight 7.2 x 8= 56 amphrs
With tracking 7.2 by an optimistic 10hrs =72 amphrs
That situation could is just about hold battery level
& does gel with Faulic's consumption figures

Although I note you did say " peak sunlight in NWA'
Hardly representive of the majority of users


But congratulations ,A POST WITH A LOT OF DETAIL ,one of the very few

Peter

Gents,

this is not getting Michaels question answered and courtesy of some is drifting in tone. There is little further advantage in continuing this line of debate.

Thanks you for your understanding.

Modsquad

Hi Mick
Our posts overlapped too.
1minute apart
That extra shows what a good factual post can be.
I like that "fridge loading adjusted up & down according to conditions"

Many do not believe it is worthwhile but I am pleased to see I AM NOT ALONE

On another forum , also suggested varying thermo setting based on battery state of charge [when batteries are approaching fully charged turn fridge/freezer to max cold]reset when sun sets, & attempts are still being made to shoot me down
On that forum the question was about turning "OFF "@ night to conserve battery /solar capacity

Peter

Peak solar output for Broom with 120W panel
7.00A max
Jan 43.75
Fed 42.21
Mar 42.00
Apr 41.79
May 36.19
Jun 33.46
Jul 36.75
Aug 41.23
Sep 46.48
Oct 49.42
Nov 50.75
Dec 48.02

If you park up at one location and dont run the engine once, no way would you power a 35L as a freezer and a 40L as a fridge especially with 2 x 140Ah batteries as you be losing temperature adjusted 17% min of your charge raising 2 batteries of that size to charging status. Was generous used 25C as the temperature on the calculation.
A camp needs to be set up with all those making these miracle bizarre claims so they can bring their fridges and solar panels along and we can all laugh at the cow poop claims as each falls over.

Faulic_McVitte,

Can I borrow your BROOM as it has the best output for Peak Solar Output I think Mankind has every seen.
Does it come with the mandatory Witch as well for a bit of Magic to get figures that good??


Cheers Kev

In your own words...."READ MY POST"

"I'm running an 80 litre Engel combo (35L freezer at -9C and 40 litre fridge on the spill-over sitting at about 0C-4C range)"

That's one fridge...NOT TWO.

Broome? I quite clearly stated I was in the Little Sandy Desert. Your lack of travel experience and geographical knowledge of this great country of ours is staggering.

Clearly I said that by managing the fridge, and I was able to not only support my power requirements but also increase the charge in the battery.

Here it is again for you Caustic

"This of course requires management of the system and fridge and judicious placement of the solar panels to maximize their operation but during stationary periods of a week, the solar input through an MPPT controller (using the Redarc BMS system) was sufficient to support power needs (fridge and the odd LED light)and maintain battery charge."


You can put down the Collyn Rivers book now. You really do need to get out more Caustic.

Remember, I've got a magic fridge ;-)

What can one do....I state what I can run and what I use power wise.
I am not telling anyone to go buy a 80 ltr waeco and 2 x 120amh batteries. I done my homework before purchasing and asked the question to the experts (not on here). I works for me and I don't really care what others say.
There are a lot of variables that makes everyone's systems different.
I asked a simple question in my original post but got shot down which is a common occurrence on this site...If you believed I was wrong with what I stated (which I am not) there is a much nicer way of replying. Too many people just like to shoot everyone down, like it is a big game to them.
I wish I had kept my trap shut and not posted nothing and just join the rest who are too scared to post for this reason.

Cheers
Simon.

PS: Waeco 84amh a day. Must be leaving the door open

Hi Bigfish
While i do not agree with personal abuse or calling people liars ,the sad fact is that many posters' so called experiences is so lacking in detail as to be useless.

Yes post opinions , but be prepared to have them criticised if they do not add up,
TOO much incorrect info is posted on forums by well meaning posters
Some harmless , others could be misleadingly dangerous or expensive

SO JUST A SIMPLE QUESTION

Do you believe that any thing should just be let stand & not be challenged, even though it is patently incorrect???

Peter

Pete,

the debate is not the question, I think Bigfish's concerns relate to the manner or way in which some people deliver the information. I don't ever consider myself an expert, particularly in solar, but I am experienced. As a result I only ever try to provide advice based on experience. I will defer to experts however, I too get very disappointed when I see someone who's just come out of the blue hijack a thread and then deliver their "expertise" in a manner that detracts from the intent of the forum. Do a bit of a forum search in respect to the person in question and you'll see what I mean. A consistant course of conduct. Even their handle is based on a tern relating to an acid.

Mate this is a great site, does that type of attitude or approach support the inent that this forum and site means to engender?

My thoughts and we're still hijacking Michaels thread lol.

Mick

Agree mate. opinions are just that..opinions. If something works for me and not for you..then dont jump on this site and label me a liar! 9NOT THAT YOU DID) This happens all too frequently. If people come onto the forum seeking info ,they dont want a world war to start over a simple error or an ambigous question
Sometimes tact is called for. Some of the people who post replies on this site would end up sore and sorry if they were face to face with someone they were slinging mud at. Its easy to sling mud anonomously.
I also couldnt care less if someone has posted on here a thousand times. Everyone should receive a fair go.

cheers